Crash scene: investigators study the wreckage of the helicopter in which Stephen Curtis died in 2004. Curtis, a lawyer working for Russian oligarchs, set up up ISC Global, later RISC Management Ltd, in 2004Credit:
BPNS

Tony Blair had occupied Downing Street for almost nine years when the Metropolitan Police launched an inquiry into potentially explosive claims that peerages had been “sold” by political parties to their wealthy owners.

A complaint had been brought by Angus McNeil, the SNP MP, after it emerged that four businessmen who gave Labour £4.5 million in unpublicised loans were subsequently nominated for peerages – all of which were later blocked by the House of Lords.

Offers of corporate hospitality and even future employment were made to police officers by RISC employees

In April 2006 Des Smith, a headteacher involved in the Government’s academies project, was arrested by police carrying out the inquiry.

Three months later Lord Levy, Mr Blair’s chief fundraiser, was also arrested. Scotland Yard’s team of detectives, led by the then assistant commissioner John Yates, was centring its investigation at the heart of Britain’s political parties. By July 14 2007, 48 people had been interviewed.

The third arrest to emerge, in September 2006, was that of Sir Christopher Evans, a biotechnology entrepreneur who had lent the Labour Party £1 million in 2005.

Sir Christopher, like Lord Levy and Mr Smith, was never charged. But the “cash for honours” team at Scotland Yard had appeared fixated on a note in his diary in which he had recorded a conversation with Lord Levy in which the peer discussed the possibility of the then Mr Evans receiving a “K” or a “P” – code for a knighthood or peerage.

Sir Christopher EvansCredit:
VISMEDIA

The conversation took place a year before he was knighted in 2001 and five years before his loan to Labour. Later, when Mr Blair was interviewed by detectives he was asked about the diary entry. Sir Christopher was left “shocked and dismayed” about his arrest, given that in his mind his payment had simply been a commercial loan to help Labour. What followed was months of uncertainty as he attended further police interviews, but he avoided publicly speaking out, having been warned by legal advisers that “to get caught up in this circus” would “damage my interests”. It was simply a case of sitting tight and waiting for the storm to pass.

Intelligence indicates that on 2nd May 2007, an employee of RISC received information from a [senior detective] who is believed to be attached to the 'Cash For Honours’ inquiryQuote from Met reports on its covert operation into alleged actions of RISC employees

Unbeknown to him, however, a private intelligence firm was, according to Scotland Yard documents, in the background making inquiries about progress with the case. One source suggested that employees of the firm –which folded in 2014 – may have “gone rogue”. It is possible that employees of the firm were carrying out activities of which its directors were unaware.

Sir Christopher was unwittingly linked to the apparent activities of the firm, RISC Management Ltd, in intelligence reports prepared by Met officers.

There is no evidence he instructed RISC Management Ltd to carry out any work in relation to the case – although he had used the firm’s services on entirely separate matters relating to Merlin Biosciences, his venture capital fund.

Spokesmen for Sir Christopher and Keith Hunter, who was chief executive of RISC Management Ltd, confirmed on Thursday that while the businessman had instructed the company for entirely separate work relating to Merlin, he never asked them to carry out any activities relating to the “cash for honours” investigation.

Somewhere along the line, though, be it by the former police officers working for RISC Management, or mistakenly by Met intelligence officers monitoring the company, Sir Christopher’s separate relationship with the firm was conflated in the eyes of Scotland Yard officers with its employees’ apparent inquiries about the investigation.

The Met’s Intelligence Development Group (IDG), a covert arm of the anti-corruption squad, feared that RISC Management, for whatever reason, was “corrupt[ing]” officers as part of attempts to seek information about the investigation. Seven months after Sir Christopher’s arrest the Crown Prosecution Service was handed a file for a decision on whether to charge any donor or party figures with criminal offences. Shortly afterwards the alleged attempts by RISC employees to approach their former colleagues for inside information about the investigation were being covertly monitored by the IDG.

A wider inquiry into the relationship between RISC Management and Met police officers had identified more than 300 calls between individuals at the two organisations in 12 months.

Mr Hunter on Thursday disputed the figure and denied any attempts to corrupt or obtain information from serving police officers. One briefing document summarises the findings of Bartonia, a covert operation established to examine potentially corrupt relationships with officers.

The operation was “concerned with the suspected leakage of information from the cash for honours enquiry to an employee of RISC”.

'Cultivation of potential sources'

Offers of corporate hospitality and even future employment were made to police officers by RISC Management employees in order to assist the “cultivation of potential sources”, the IDG stated. The report identified two former Metropolitan Police officers who were apparently using their old contacts to make inquiries about the honours investigation.

One was said to have “tasked” an officer at SCD6, the economic crimes unit carrying out the investigation, with providing information.

This decision [about whether to charge cash for honours suspects], if unfavourable to their client, may force RISC to make further enquiries about the investigation with any corrupt officers that will provide further intelligence/evidential opportunitiesQuote from Met reports on its covert operation into alleged actions of RISC employees

The IDG separately found that RISC Management had received intelligence about the honours inquiry from an unnamed high-ranking officer from the same unit. Over the next two weeks RISC is said to have received inside information about three suspects.

“Intelligence indicates that RISC Management got information on names of people due to be charged,” the IDG document said.

A report dated July 11 2007 noted that with a “charging decision” in relation to the cash for honours investigation expected imminently, RISC Management may have been about to make further approaches to SCD6.

“This decision, if unfavourable to their client, may force RISC Management to make further enquiries about the investigation with any corrupt officers that will provide further intelligence/evidential opportunities,” the report said.

The decision by the CPS not to charge anyone was announced on July 20 on the grounds of insufficient evidence against any individual.

The wider operation examining the relationship between RISC Management and Met officers continued, but its findings have been kept secret. Mr Hunter and Cliff Knuckey, another senior RISC Management executive were arrested in connection with another case and allegations that SCD6 officers had been paid for information.

Boris Berezovsky, pictured in London with his girlfriend, was linked to deals with RISCCredit:
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No further action was taken against Mr Hunter, who said he was exonerated after a lengthy investigation following “malicious allegations” against the two men. Mr Knuckey was subsequently prosecuted for allegedly faking invoices but was also cleared when his trial collapsed over information the CPS had apparently failed to disclose.

RISC Management, which always denied making any payments to police officers, was put into administration in 2014. Mr Hunter has since set up a new intelligence firm called Animus Associates.

On Thursday he said: “Sir Christopher never instructed us in relation to the cash for honours matter and to the best of our knowledge we did not provide any services to him relating to this matter.” He added: “We have not and never have been involved in obtaining information from serving police officers.”

A spokesman for Sir Christopher said the allegations that he had instructed RISC Management in relation to the cash for honours inquiry were “totally false and entirely groundless, and there can exist no credible evidence to the contrary”.

“Insofar as there is any suggestion that RISC ... may have claimed to act on behalf of Sir Christopher in this regard, it is absolutely false and they had no right to make any such claim.” The spokesman added: “Even aside from our client’s clear denial, given the very high profile, and public nature of the matter at the time, it would logically have been wholly unnecessary for our client to have engaged a third party to make covert enquiries into the progress of the police investigation.”

It is understood that Sir Christopher was never contacted by police about his dealings with RISC Management.